Could a little homework help save your marriage? Researchers in Chicago think so. They found that couples who spent just seven minutes every few months writing short essays about their recent fights reported being less unhappy a year later than similar couples who didn’t do the assignments.

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“It doesn’t make them fight less often and it doesn’t make that fight less severe. What is does is it makes them less upset about the fights that they have,” said Eli Finkel of Northwestern University, who led the study.